1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to transportation vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods for determining transportation vehicle customer satisfaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the process of transportation vehicle design, development and manufacturing, transportation vehicle manufacturers often pay particular attention to manufacturing and developing transportation vehicle designs, which provide transportation vehicles, which in turn provide high levels of customer satisfaction. High levels of customer satisfaction are desirable within the context of transportation vehicle design, development and manufacturing since high levels of customer satisfaction generally provide with respect to an individual transportation vehicle manufacturer and an individual customer brand loyalty which provides for purchase of multiple additional transportation vehicles from the individual transportation vehicle manufacturer by the individual customer.
While high levels of customer satisfaction are thus clearly desirable within the art of transportation vehicle design, development and manufacturing, providing transportation vehicle designs which may be developed and manufactured to provide transportation vehicles which provide high levels of customer satisfaction is nonetheless not entirely without problems within the art of transportation vehicle design, development and manufacturing.
In that regard, it is often difficult to provide transportation vehicle designs which may be developed and manufactured to provide high levels of customer satisfaction, in part, since while transportation vehicle design, development and manufacturing is typically directed towards physical components and subassemblies which are employed when designing, developing and manufacturing a transportation vehicle, transportation vehicle customer satisfaction is in contrast generally recognized as a subjective characteristic which is often difficult to directly correlate with respect to specific transportation vehicle physical components and subassemblies which are employed when designing, developing and manufacturing a transportation vehicle.
There thus exists within the art of transportation vehicle design, development and manufacturing a continuing need for methods for determining transportation vehicle customer satisfaction, preferably at early stages in design, development and manufacturing of transportation vehicles.
It is towards the foregoing object that the present invention is directed.
In accord with the object towards which the present invention is directed, there is provided by the present invention a method for predicting customer satisfaction for a transportation vehicle. In its most general sense, the method realizes the foregoing object by measuring for the transportation vehicle a Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) level within the transportation vehicle when an engine which powers the transportation vehicle is operating at wide open throttle. Within the present invention and the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) level is typically and preferably an interior loudness level.
In a more specific sense, the present invention also provides a method for determining for a specific transportation vehicle an as yet undetermined expected customer satisfaction level, which might otherwise be determined, for example, by survey, where the as yet undetermined expected customer satisfaction level is determined by extrapolation or interpolation from a series of measurements of Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) levels for a group of transportation vehicles, typically and preferably of a class analogous or equivalent to the class of transportation vehicle in which the specific transportation vehicle is a member.